After a certain age people stop asking you what your favorite dinosaur is, and I think that’s sad.

My current one’s the Anchiornis, because it’s in the same clade as birds so it’s in their family tree, and it really looks like a prototype of a bird. It had 4 wings for example, but it already looked very birb-y:

(Figured I’d just turn an earlier comment into an actual post because why not)

    • hydroptic@sopuli.xyzOP
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      2 months ago

      Crazily enough Anchiornis are dinosaurs, specifically paravian or possibly avialan depending on whose classification you believe, but dinos in any case

        • Mothra@mander.xyz
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          2 months ago

          Because they don’t descend from those ancestors. Instead they evolved from some other, much earlier, reptile ancestor. They are about as dinosaurs as crocodiles or snakes are dinosaurs.

    • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      2 months ago

      Movie depictions of Triceratops rub me the wrong way. Never liked Sarah in Land Before Time and my daughter loves Ice Age Buck Wild and the triceratops is the bad guy in that, too. They do triceratops dirty.

      Actually guy in buck wild may he a monoclonius 🤔

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      My favorite cartoon as a kid had a triceratops at a hero. I don’t remember much about it and can’t find it listed online but it might have been from 1970s and I really just remember the triceratops charging at the bad guys, shooting lasers out of his horns

    • neidu2@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      Same. Because triceratops have none.
      It’s like a rhino with even more armor and horns, what’s not to like?

    • Klear@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I used to think liking triceratops is dumb when there’s likes of centrosaurus and styracosaurus, but over the years I’ve come to appreciate the classic design.

  • Klear@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Euoplocephalus, because I like me some ank memes, but I wanna be special.

    If we included pterosaurs, then anurognathus, because look at him!

  • ALQ@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I love this question! This made me really happy. My favorite has always been (and remains) the brontosaurus. (Probably can blame “The Land Before Time” for its influence.)

    I remember in the early/mid-90s being corrected that brontosaurus wasn’t a dinosaur species, but was actually the same as apatosaurus. Being a stubborn child, I refused to accept this and always considered the brontosaurus, not the apatosaurus, my favorite. I felt so vindicated when the study came out in 2015 that brontosaurus and apatosaurus weren’t the same.

    Perhaps that’s why I still stubbornly refuse to let go of Pluto: the minute hope that my favorite planet will be recognized again someday. Alas.

    • A_cook_not_a_chef@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I also have brontosaurus as my favorite (probably also because of The Land Before Time).

      Glad you’re still holding out hope for Pluto too!

    • metallic_substance@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I had a plastic brontosaurus toy as a kid that I loved. It had a weird chemical smell to it. 30+ years later, when I hear “brontosaurus” I instantly and vividly swear I can smell it

  • DumbAceDragon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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    2 months ago

    Parasaurolophus. I just think they’re kinda neat and kinda cute.

    Aside from that, pretty much any raptor. (I am not a paleontologist, I mostly just mean anything with feathers)

    • steeznson@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They’ve recently discovered that their large nasal cavities could have been used to make a tuba like noise

    • hydroptic@sopuli.xyzOP
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      2 months ago

      Oh yeah somebody else had Parasaurolophus as their fave too earlier, and they (well, the reconstructions anyhow) really do look super cute. Dinocows!